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Reader Comments and Retorts

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The Washington Nationals are the Cowsills.
The Cincinnati Reds are the Human Beinz.
The New York Yankees are the Spencer Davis Group.
The San Francisco Giants are the Easybeats.
The Oakland Athletics are the Cyrkle. (The Moneyball Oakland A's were the Left Banke.)
The Detroit Tigers are Manfred Mann.
The Atlanta Braves are the Dixie Cups.
The Texas Rangers are the Foundations.
The Baltimore Orioles are the Marvelettes.
The St. Louis Cardinals are Merrilee Rush & the Turnabouts.

The Yankees are Damn Yankees, the Cardinals are Cardinal, the A's are the A's, the Braves are Brave Combo, the Rangers are Night Ranger, the Giants are They Might Be Giants, the Nationals are the National, the Orioles are the Orioles, the Reds are Helen Reddy, and the Tigers are lucky they were in the AL Central.

The Braves would be better as Rush -- consistently underrated except for (Moving Pictures/1995). Did well over a tremendously long period with a variety of styles. No real claim as "best ever" but it's foolish not to consider them as tremendously successful.

Most of these comparisons don't really hit the mark, either in terms of being proper analogies or all that funny. But comparing Oakland to Pavement really is pretty close to dead-on, isn't it.

The Washington Nationals are more like Pulp: putzing around for the first, lengthy part of their history mostly ignored, and embarrassing themselves when anybody even thinks to pay attention to them.(2005-2010 for the Nats, 1981-1991 for Pulp). Then a mildly intriguing season that is still classified as a failure but shows flashes of promise (2011/Separations). Then all of a sudden, without warning, they're the best team in the league/the best band in Britain (2012 for the Nats, the Gift Recordings and His 'n' Hers for Pulp).

Extrapolating forward, they'll put together a string of incredible seasons before suddenly imploding in a haze of cocaine and ego.

"Really? You're going to spend ... FIVE TIMES what anyone else has ever spent before on a rock stage set? And you're going to take this around the country, and count on nothing going wrong, for years? Well I'll be damned, it's actually working. It's still working! Whoops, you're a laughingstock all of a sudden."

The Mariners are the Mariners
The Angels are the ????
The White Sox are the White Stripes
The Indians are the ???
The Twins are the Cocteau Twins
The Royals are the ???
The Red Sox are Simply Red
The Blue Jays are Shocking Blue
The Rays are Jimmy Ray
The Mets are the ???
The Phillies are the ???
The Marlins are School Of Fish
The Pirates are the ???
The Brewers are Buddy Holly
The Cubs are the ???
The Astros are Man Or Astro-Man
The Dodgers are the ???
The Padres are Father MC
The Diamondbacks are Whitesnake
The Rockies are the ???

This reminds me of David Tennant defending his unabashed fondness for Coldplay against the slings and arrows of the condescending hipsters of the world.

I dislike Coldplay in the exact same way I dislike most Steven Spielberg movies--the emotion just feels synthetic and hollow.

Anyway...Pavement! But Billy Beane has already established the A's are the Ramones and the Giants are the BeeGees. The Giants aren't anything like Deerhoof. I'm a Giants fan but they are a much more standard and crossover act than Deerhoof. More like Green Day--all the trappings and nostalgia of a former rebelliousness coupled with too much eye makeup.

I'm glad I read the comments because some great 60's bands got mentioned. Barry and the Remains, the Cyrkle, the Left Banke! Like listening to "60's Jangle Radio" on Live365. A site I never knew until John Murphy told me about it here on BTF.

Bono has written some good lyrics. I'm talking music here. Not contemporary perceptions of "what's cool." 'UP' is a great album. Inspired Radiohead. At the time, I don't think people thought it was very cool. Bono isn't cool either, right now. But its about who you inspire down the line. And I'm sure U2 will be an influence for a long time. Like REM, Radiohead, Pavement... Cool comes and goes. Perceptions change. But the actual music outlasts all that.